School dengue eradication programs, a success

by Ananda Kannangara

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane said the participation of schoolchildren in the dengue eradication programs of over 9,000 schools in the country have shown fruitful results during the last year.

He said these programs will be streamlined and strengthened this year too.

Addressing a seminar on 'Cleaning school environments',organised by teachers and children in Kandy, Minister Gunawardane said in addition to normal school education, all children should focus attention on the country's health development activities too.

He said last year, children of all schools took part in various environmental cleaning programs in their schools with the help of area health authorities. The Minister also thanked schoolchildren for the efforts being made to clean their school compounds and said such cleaning programs should be continued. Quoting Health Department statistics, Minister Gunawardane said the Government spends a colossal sum of money every year to improve the health conditions of the over 4.2 million schoolchildren in the country.

"We have also taken steps to establish dental clinics in every school so that children will not have to go to other schools for this purpose," he said.

He said children will also be encouraged to participate in regular health camps with the help of medical officers so that various illnesses among them could be identified and steps taken to cure them.Several principals and teachers from many schools in Colombo including Royal College, Ananda College, Visakha Vidyalaya and Devi Balika Vidyalaya and several schools in Kandy, Galle and Ratnapura districts, said their students are regularly engaged in school compound cleaning programs to destroy mosquito breeding grounds.

A senior Education Department official in the Kalutara District, A.P. Premasiri told the Sunday Observer that the majority of children in the district take part in regular cleaning projects.